Pretoria – Prosecutor Gerrie Nel cautioned murder accused Oscar Pistorius not to argue with him and answer his questions in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.
“Mr Pistorius, please answer the question. Don’t argue with me. If you argue or think about other evidence you will get into trouble,” Nel told Pistorius during cross-examination.

He was questioning the Paralympian about a statement submitted at his bail application that he went onto his balcony to bring a fan into his room.

This was in the early hours of 14 February last year, shortly before he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a locked toilet door, apparently thinking she was an intruder.

He found her slumped over the toilet after he broke the door down. She was shot in the hip, arm, and head.

“I never went onto the balcony,” Pistorius told the court.

He said he placed a stainless steel fan, which was on a tripod, with one leg on the balcony tiles, the other two legs on his bedroom carpet. He said he placed a second fan on the carpet in front of the first.

“I went onto the balcony to bring a fan in,” Nel read from the statement.

Pistorius conceded that this was the case.

‘My story hasn’t changed’

Earlier Pistorius said he never changed his account of how he shot dead Steenkamp.

“My version never changed,” said Pistorius.

“The State’s case has changed many times,” he added.

He said he had read the statements of over 100 witnesses on the time he “took Reeva’s life” on Valentine’s Day last year and there were some things he did not remember.

Switching the light on in the bathroom, calling security, carrying Steenkamp downstairs after he shot her dead in the toilet at his home were among them.

There had been no “reconstruction” of her death taking into account evidence he had seen or heard since then.

“I tendered my story to my counsel… my story hasn’t changed since then.”

He said he wanted to address the court during his bail application last year but he was told he would not cope.

There were “some aspects” he spoke about to his counsel that were not included in his bail statement.

Court was adjourned for lunch.

Pistorius is charged with murder and with contraventions of the Firearms Control Act. He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.

On 30 Septembe 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.

SAPA